Tom Branson's Grandfather

Tom Branson mentions one of his grandfathers was a tenant farmer in Galway, specializing in Blackface sheep. He seems to have spent some time at the farm, having acquired some knowledge about land and farming. He mentions to Lady Sinderby that he shot pigeons there.

Notes

It is unknown if he is still alive, and whether he is Tom's paternal or maternal grandfather.

Nuala

Nuala is one of Tom Branson's cousins. Tom mentions to his sister-in-law Edith Crawley that Nuala had become pregnant out of wedlock, and her daughter was brought up as her sister in order to preserve her reputation.

Notes

Nuala's last name is unknown. If she is Tom's paternal cousin, then her maiden name would be Nuala Branson.

Crawley relatives

James Crawley

Mr James Crawley (d. 15 April, 1912) was Robert Crawley's first cousin and the original heir to the Earldom and family fortune, but he perished in the sinking of the RMS Titanic[1] along with his only son, Patrick. The family has a memorial for him and his son in London and then in Downton. His aunt Violet Crawley was not fond of him, finding him too similar to his mother with whom she also had negative relationship.

James's body was recovered from the sea and he was buried in Canada[2].

Violet Crawley did not get along with her, claiming that "a nastier woman never drew breath"; Violet's dislike also spread to her son, as Violet later stated that she "never cared for James." because "he was too much like his mother".

Notes

In 1912 Violet refers to her in the past tense, suggesting that she died sometime earlier.

If Robert's father succeeded his father as Earl of Grantham, then this woman would have the title of "The Honourable" by marriage[3]

Mr Patrick Crawley

Reginald Crawley

Dr Reginald Crawley, Matthew's father, was mentioned twice in Series 1. He died between 1909 and 1912 and was a doctor in Manchester until his death. As he predeceased his cousins James and Patrick Crawley, his son Matthew became heir to the Earldom of Grantham until his own untimely death. Reginald's great-grandfather was a younger son of the 3rd Earl of Grantham.

He studied medicine with his brother-in-law under the tutelage of his father-in-law. Dr Clarkson admitted in 1912 that he was familiar with Reginald's work on the symptoms of infection in children. He also treated dropsy of the heart, a process witnessed by his wife, who later encouraged Dr Clarkson to use the same treatment for John Drake despite Violet's protests.

Isobel later described to Mary and Tom how "sick" with love she was when she got engaged to Reginald. When they described their own romances with Sybil and Matthew respectively, Isobel remarked "Aren't we the lucky ones?!"

Despite this character being listed as "Gordon" that is not actually his name; his forename is unknown and his surname is "Gordon." The mysterious person calling himself Patrick Gordon claims to be related to the Crawleys and Edith makes a possible connection between him and this "Gordon" saying that a great aunt discovered by Robert "married a Gordon"; as Patrick Gordon is using the surname as the way that they are related.

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Marmaduke Painswick

Mr Marmaduke Painswick is the late husband of Rosamund Painswick. He was a wealthy banker who acquired a house on Eaton Square where his widow still resides. His fortune made Rosamund a very wealthy woman after they married. The social prominence of his family began with his paternal grandfather, a manufacturer, while his maternal grandfather was a baronet. The non-aristocratic roots of the Painswick family is a never ending source of mockery from his mother-in-law, Violet; however, Violet approved more of Marmaduke than she did of Sir Richard Carlisle.

Cousin Freddie

Cousin Freddie (fl.1913) was a cousin of Sybil, Edith and Mary, who in 1913, was studying to be a lawyer at Lincoln's Inn alongside Vivianne MacDonald. Sybil used him as an example to Mary when saying that he was like Matthew.

Appearance

Episode 1.02 (Mentioned only)

Mentions

Sybil: "Cousin Freddie's studying at the bar - and so is Vivian MacDonald"

Mary: "At Lincoln's Inn! Not sitting at a dirty little desk in Ripon."

The First Earl may have died by 1789 as his son, who collected a Della Francesca was said to be on a "grand tour" through at least France at the time of the Bastile; his mother sent a letter, by special messenger, to tell him to come home[5].

"But the Servants' Ball is always held on the twelfth of January, the birthday of the first Countess."

—Charles Carson on the first Countess.

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1st Earl of Grantham's sister

The 1st Earl of Grantham's sister was mentioned by Violet Crawley to the Duke of Crowborough when discussing the Dower House. The Earl commissioned Sir Christopher Wren to design it so that his sister could live close to Downton Abbey.[8]

Daughter-in-law of the 3rd Earl of Grantham

Little is known about this woman, but Robert states that "Downton Place came with my great-grandmother," and as it passed into the hands of the Granthams, we known she was his great-grandmother, and most likely would have been a daughter-in-law of the 3rd Earl.

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3rd Earl of Grantham

The 3rd Earl of Grantham is the ancestor of both Robert and Matthew, who almost went bankrupt. He had at least two sons; the elder was the great-grandfather of Robert Crawley and his younger son is the great grandfather of Reginald Crawley, Matthew's father.

After her husband's death she lived in Crawley House. It was mentioned that Crawley House seemed very dark when her mother-in-law lived there, but Violet remarks that her mother-in-law made everything rather dark. In 1921, Violet later stated that somewhere being "filthy and dirty, with awful food" and "no-one to talk to for a hundred square miles" was like a week with her mother-in-law.

Patrick Crawley, Earl of Grantham

Patrick Crawley[10], former Earl of Grantham, was the late husband of Violet Crawley and father of Rosamund Painswick as well as Robert. According to his wife, Violet, the Earl was a great traveller and as a result she "spent many happy evenings without understanding a word."[11] He had a younger brother, who was the father of James Crawley. If he was the Fourth Earl, then he only saved Downton by dying.

Violet Crawley's Father

He was born sometime before the 1840s because by 1842 he was married,[15] and was alive in 1860 to witness Violet's marriage to the father of Robert Crawley. Due to being impoverished, he was not able to provide Violet with a large dowry to save the also impoverished Earldom of Grantham.

J.J. Astor was an acquaintance of Cora Crawley, although not, apparently, of her husband. Cora seemed to be fond of Astor and was worried that he did not get off the sinking RMS Titanic, in 1912. She didn't seem to be as fond of Astor's wife as she was of him, as she referred to her as "that new wife of his". Astor did not survive the sinking, and is believed to have died when one of the smokestacks collapsed onto the awash deck.

Madeline Astor

Madeleine Astor (née Talmage-Force) (19 June, 1893 — 27 March, 1940)[18] was the second wife and widow of millionaire J.J. Astor and a survivor of RMS Titanic. J.J. Astor was an acquaintance of Cora Crawley, although not, apparently, of her husband. Cora seemed not to be as fond of her as she was of J.J. Astor, as she referred to her as "that new wife of his".

Charles Hays

Charles Melville Hays (May 16, 1856 – April 15, 1912) was the president of the Grand Trunk Railway[19]. Hays is credited with the formation of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (GTP), a dream he had to create a second transcontinental railroad within the borders of Canada. He is also blamed for the insolvency of both the GTR and the GTP. He died before his dream was complete as he perished at sea in the sinking of the RMS Titanic.[20]

Robert: "It was the main railway in British North America, for god's sake! It wasn't just me. Everyone said we couldn't lose! We knew hard times were coming for estates like Downton, and this investment would make it safe for the rest of time."

George Murray: "Charles Hays was the presiding genius, and since he died, the management has not...the fact is, the company is about to be declared bankrupt...And the line will be absorbed into the Canadian National Railway scheme."

Robert: "Are you really telling me that all the money is gone?"

— Episode 3.01

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Fifth Officer Lowe

Patrick Gordon: "I was on the Titanic. That much is true. But I was pulled out of the water by Fifth Officer Lowe, the only one of them to come back. At least, that's what they said later. When I properly came 'round, they misidentified me as Canadian, shipped me up to Montreal."

Edith: "I don't understand. Why didn't you just tell them who you were?"

Patrick Gordon: "Because I couldn't remember. I don't know if it was the blow to the head or the-- the shock, or cold, but I had no memory. As far as I knew, I was Canadian."

— Episode 2.06

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Lucy Rothes

Lady Rothes joined the Crawleys for dinner in March 1912, at Downton Abbey. According to Cora, she expressed her excitement of boarding the RMS Titanic during its maiden voyage to New York in the following month. When news got at Downton, on 16 April, 1912, that the steamer had sunk in the North Atlanic, Cora was shocked because of this. The Countess of Rothes did, however, survive the sinking, having left the sinking ship aboard Lifeboat 8.

In Autumn 1920, Violet Crawley informed Rose that she would go up to Duneagle Castle and spend the rest of her vacation with Agatha; this information horrified Rose, who threatened to run away. Violet managed to reign Rose in by saying that until she was older, she was under their command. Rose later claimed that Agatha was "a monster"[25]. In 1920, Agatha was residing at Duneagle Castle but she was only there to care for Rose, and had left by September 1921.

Countess of Newtonmore

The Countess of Newtonmore was the Scottish paternal grandmother of Hugh 'Shrimpire' MacClare, Marquess of Flintshire. She was countess in her own right and title is now the courtesy title of the Marquess of Flintshire currently being used by Shrimpie's son, James. She was the heiress of Duneagle Castle.

Viscount Branksome

Viscount Branksome was the husband of the late Viscountess Branksome and the father of Evelyn Napier. Lord and Lady Branksome were acquaintances of Robert Crawley and his wife Cora. Robert describes Lord Branksome as a "dull dog" that only ever talks about racing. Cora tells Mary Crawley that Evelyn's mother is a dear friend of hers although she was unaware that she had died.

Dr T. Goldman

T. Goldman is a gynecologist in London whom Edith visits in 1922 when she suspects she might be pregnant following the night she had spent with her lover Michael Gregson before his departure for Germany.
Goldman later writes back to Edith, informing her that her symptoms do indicate early signs of pregnancy, and he looks forward to being of further assisstance to her in the future.

Peter Gordon

Peter Gordon once worked in the Foreign Office, where he befriended Patrick Crawley, whose father was the heir to Downton Abbey and the title Earl of Grantham. Peter later immigrated to Montreal in 1913, a year after Patrick drowned on the Titanic.

During World War I, when a wounded officer claimed to be the presumed dead Patrick Crawley, it was thought that he might actually be Peter Gordon, which would explain how the officer knew certain details of the family. Shortly after however, the officer disappeared, and it was never proven if he was Patrick Crawley, Peter Gordon, or someone else entirely.

Ada Grey

Ada Grey (Lady Merton) is the deceased wife of Richard Grey (Lord Merton). Richard states to Isobel that it was not a happy marriage as they were not well suited. He also explains that both his sons, Larry and Tim, "take after their mother, in every possible way."

Mrs. Henderson

"I was at the hospital today and Mrs. Henderson has done the most generous thing and given a wireless to the ward so that they can listen to music and the news, sometimes even a play. I can't tell you how it brightens things up."

The Dowager Duchess of Norfolk

The Dowager Duchess of Norfolk (possibly Augusta Mary Minna Catherine Lyons[27]), was a "dear friend" of Violet Crawley and, according to her, a fervent observer of the Catholic faith; Violet claimed that she was "more Catholic than the Pope."

Annabelle Portsmouth

Annabelle Portsmouth was the daughter of Lord and Lady Portsmouth; Mary used her as an excuse - claiming that they were going on a sketching trip - to avoid revealing her plans to sleep with Anthony Foyle.

Billy Skelton

Billy Skelton was mentioned by Robert Crawley as not allowing hunting on his land. The Skeltons were also said to be mad by Mary Crawley and presumably are associated with Skelton Park mentioned in episode 1.01, which already had electricity in the kitchens, and the Skelton estate mentioned in episode 1.05.

Maud, Lady Strallan

Maud Strallan, Lady Strallan (d. 1910[28]
) was the late wife of Sir Anthony Strallan who died in 1910 and the couple had no children in their marriage. When Sir Anthony was about to marry Edith, Dowager Countess Violet remarks to Reverend Travis that he looked as if he was awaiting a beating from the head master. When Travis asks if he should talk to him, Violet says that it would do no good, as Strallan had gone through this before and was presumably aware of all the facts. They comment that perhaps the first Lady Strallan was a hard act to follow, or to repeat.

Duchess of Truro

The Duchess of Truro was an acquaintance of Violet Crawley's, who had requested Sir Philip Tapsell's services sometime before 1920. Tapsell safely delivered her three sons, thus securing the Dukedom's heirs and earning him much praise.

Mrs Butte

Mrs Butte is the housekeeper at Grantham House in London. She was taken ill with Scarlet Fever in summer 1923, prior to the arrival of the Crawley family for the London season and for Rose's coming out. This required Mrs Hughes to go to London to run the house. Later in 1924, Mrs Hughes mentions that Mrs Butte has resigned.

Mrs. Hughes: "You will never guess what has happened now. Mrs Butte has been taken ill, and she won't be back for weeks."

Daisy: "What does that mean?"

Mrs. Hughes: "They want me in London to take over, and that's not all, they've asked for you to go with me."

— 2013 Christmas Special

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The Crawleys Dentist

The Crawleys' dentist was the dental surgeon that served the Crawleys whenever needed. He was, according to Lady Mary Crawley, their dentist ever since she was a child, and he received their patronage in a matter of tradition, not preference, as she regarded him as "horrid".

Gertie

Gertie (Gertrude presumably), is a maid taking over sometime after the departure of Ivy Stuart, and is normally responsible for tending the fires. Daisy is met by Cora one morning tending to the fires, and informs her that Gertie is taken ill, hence the reason Daisy is doing it.

Fräulein Kelder

Fräulein Kelder was mentioned by Edith Crawley to Major Gordon. She was Edith and Mary Crawley's governess when they were children. When Major Gordon was trying to convince Edith that he is actually her cousin Patrick Crawley, she shows him a place on the estate where she, Mary and Patrick used to hide. Major Gordon asks if there was a governess that none of them liked and Edith giggles and says, "Fräulein Kelder."

Mary, unaware of this exchange, later says that hiding from the nasty governess would be the kind of memory anybody would expect from a childhood spend in a place like Downton Abbey.

Simmons

Simmons was Violet Crawley's lady's maid. Acting odd, Violet suspects Simmons will leave her which she finds was right as Simmons quits to get married. Violet considers this very selfish. Violet asks Cora Crawley help in hiring a replacement for Simmons. Sarah O'Brien overheads Violet and Cora discussing responses to an advertisement Cora put in The Lady which O'Brien mistakenly believes is about her.

Smithers

When Violet sent money to Sybil Branson and Tom Branson to come to England for Matthew Crawley and Mary Crawley's wedding, Smithers wrote the letter for her along with it. Violet credits her when Sybil remarked the letter she received was not her grandmother's handwriting.

Violet says: "like all ladies maids she lives for intrigue."

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Mr Stark

Mr Stark was The Crawley's Chauffeur. He become under Downton's employment after former chauffeur Tom Branson left with Lady Sybil. He is still working at Downton in 1924.

Mr Watson

Mr Watson was Robert Crawley's valet. He left Robert's employ and was temporarily replaced as valet by Thomas Barrow until Mr Watson's permanent replacement, John Bates, arrived in April 1912. John also moved into Watson's former room. Elsie Hughes mentioned that Mr. Watson left the room in quite a state.

Robert: "Now this takes me back. Did I ever tell you about our cook when I was a boy? Mrs Yardley."

— Episode 6.01

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Levinson Relatives

Cora's Aunt

Cora's Aunt is the aunt of Cora Crawley and was still alive in 1914, as Cora mentions sending Mary Crawley to visit her in Episode 1.06. It is unknown if she is blood related to Cora. She may be the sister of Martha Levinson or Isidore Levinson or she may simply be the wife of one of their siblings. Cora has a better relationship with her aunt than she does her own mother, perhaps hinting that her aunt is related to her through her father.

Cora: "I might send Mary to visit my aunt. She could get to know New York"

Violet: "Oh, I don't think things are quite that desperate."

— Episode 1.06

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Isidore Levinson

Isidore Levinson is the late wealthy, Jewish[29] husband of Martha Levinson - and the father of Cora Crawley and Harold Levinson - who had made his fortune as a dry goods merchant in Cincinnati. Isidore tied up his money well, making sure that his children were both well cared for and received equal shares; on her marriage in 1889, Cora received her share, and the family she married into would receive no more.[30]

Isidore also made sure that Martha was taken care of and made sure that no-one could touch the capital generated from his fortune, so that it would not be lost; all of this was done before his death.[31]

Cora tells Lord Sinderby that she did not believe it was difficult having a different religion from her father, and that she's not ashamed he was Jewish since she and her family never changed their name.
Appearances

Becky Hughes

Becky lives in Lytham St Annes. Mrs Hughes has described Becky as being "not right in the head." She requires a caretaker, thus Mrs Hughes has spent most of her earnings providing for Becky's care, leaving her with no savings.

Freddie Moorsum

Freddie Moorsum (b.1905) is the son of Jane Moorsum. He was 12 years old in 1917 when his father died in the Battle of the Somme. His mother then came to Downton Abbey looking for work in order to support him, and was in service until 1919. She was easily hired and her mother took care of Freddie if he should need it while she is working.

A keen mathematics student, Freddie got a scholarship to Ripon Grammar School with help from Robert Crawley. His mother and Robert shared a mutual attraction and kisses, but Robert felt guilty and chose not to pursue her further. Knowing it was for the best, Jane handed in her notice and left.

It is unknown how Freddie reacted to Robert's assistance in getting his scholarship, if he ever knew at all.

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Beryl Patmore's sister

Beryl Patmore's sister was mentioned by Beryl Patmore to Daisy Mason following the deaths of James and Patrick Crawley. She died sometime before 1912.

Archibald “Archie” Philpotts

He served as Private Philpotts during the Great War, but was declared "missing presumed dead" sometime before the end of the war. Beryl did not get her hopes up, and certainly thought him dead, but she asked Robert Crawley if he could ask about him at the War Office. The Earl found out that the boy had been shot for cowardice at the front.

Mrs Patmore later learned from her sister that their town was constructing their own memorial but Archie's name would not be included - because he deserted and was shot for cowardice, he was found unworthy by the committee.

Beryl Patmore: "I lost my nephew, my sister's boy. H — he was shot… for cowardice. That's what they said. But I knew him, and he'd never have done such a thing if he hadn't've been half out of his mind with fear."

Henry Lang: "Don't blame him. It was him, but it could've been me. It could have been any of us."

Kate Philpotts

Kate's son Archie was shot for cowardice in 1917, during the Great War. The War Office sent a telegram saying he was "missing presumed dead" to the family, but Robert Crawley found out what had happened to him and told the truth to Beryl. He urged her not to tell all the details to her sister, as he saw it best not to judge Private Philpotts during war time.

Politicians, Monarchs and Government Officials

Joseph Gerald Antsy

The Hon. Joseph Gerald Antsy, MP, was a member of the Conservative and Unionist Party. In May, 1914, he was elected Member of Parliament for the Ripon constituency with a total of 6,363 votes. The announcement of the results of this by-election were turbulent, as there was a large crowd of liberal protesters for the women's right to vote, and a group of violent working-class men stormed through the City Hall courtyard, wanting to "wipe the smile off their Tory bloody faces". In the commotion that followed, Sybil Crawley was knocked to the floor and bumped her head on a low table, causing minor injury. The unconscious lady was rescued by Tom Branson, her chauffeur who had escorted her there, and Matthew Crawley, who had just left his law firm in Ripon.

Herbert Henry Asquith

Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith (12 September 1852 – 15 February 1928) served as the Liberal Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 to 1916. Until 5 January 1988, he had been the longest continuously serving Prime Minister in the 20th century.[33]

John Ward[34]: "Of course the question upper most in all of your minds is, why the split between Mr. Asquith and Mr. Lloyd George? Because a divided party spells electoral defeat."

— Episode 4.07

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Attila the Hun

Attila (434-452), frequently referred to as Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in March 453. Attila was a leader of the Hunnic Empire, which stretched from the Ural River to the Rhine River and from the Danube River to the Baltic Sea. During his reign, he was one of the most feared enemies of the Western and Eastern Roman Empires. He crossed the Danube twice and plundered the Balkans, but was unable to take Constantinople.
[35]

George Bushell

King Canute

Cnut the Great (c. 985 or 995 – 12 November 1035), more commonly known as Canute, was a king of Denmark, England, Norway, and parts of Sweden, together often referred to as the Anglo-Scandinavian or North Sea Empire. After the death of his heirs within a decade of his own and the Norman conquest of England in 1066, his legacy was largely lost to history. Historian Norman Cantor has made the statement that he was "the most effective king in Anglo-Saxon history", despite his not being Anglo-Saxon.

Henry of Huntingdon, the 12th-century chronicler, tells how Cnut set his throne by the sea shore and commanded the tide to halt and not wet his feet and robes. Yet "continuing to rise as usual [the tide] dashed over his feet and legs without respect to his royal person. Then the king leapt backwards, saying: 'Let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings, for there is none worthy of the name, but He whom heaven, earth, and sea obey by eternal laws.' He then hung his gold crown on a crucifix, and never wore it again "to the honour of God the almighty King". This incident is usually misrepresented by popular commentators and politicians as an example of Cnut's arrogance.[37]

Violet: "I see I am beaten, but oh how I sympathize with King Canute."

Mary: "Now what is this idea?"

— Episode 4.02

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King Charles I

Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649.

Charles was the second son of King James VI of Scotland, but after his father inherited the English throne in 1603, he moved to England, where he spent much of the rest of his life. He became heir apparent to the English, Irish and Scottish thrones on the death of his elder brother, Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, in 1612. An unsuccessful and unpopular attempt to marry him to a Spanish Habsburg princess culminated in an eight-month visit to Spain in 1623 that demonstrated the futility of the marriage negotiations. Two years later he married the Bourbon princess Henrietta Maria of France instead.

From 1642, Charles fought the armies of the English and Scottish parliaments in the English Civil War. After his defeat in 1645, he surrendered to a Scottish force that eventually handed him over to the English Parliament. Charles refused to accept his captors' demands for a constitutional monarchy, and temporarily escaped captivity in November 1647. Re-imprisoned on the Isle of Wight, Charles forged an alliance with Scotland, but by the end of 1648 Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army had consolidated its control over England. Charles was tried, convicted, and executed for high treason in January 1649. The monarchy was abolished and a republic called the Commonwealth of England was declared. In 1660, the English Interregnum ended when the monarchy was restored to Charles's son, Charles II.[38]

A large 1635 portrait of Charles I by Anthony van Dyck[39] adorns the head of the dining room.

Winston Churchill

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British politician at the forefront of politics for fifty years, he held many political and cabinet positions. Before the First World War, he served as President of the Board of Trade, Home Secretary, and First Lord of the Admiralty as part of the Asquith Liberal government. During the war, he continued as First Lord of the Admiralty until the disastrous Gallipoli Campaign caused his departure from government. He then briefly resumed active army service on the Western Front as commander of the 6th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers. He returned to government as Minister of Munitions, Secretary of State for War, and Secretary of State for Air.[40]

Mrs Hughes: "Well Mr Carson, if you want me, then you can have me. To quote Oliver Cromwell, warts and all."

— Episode 6.01

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Martin James Dillon

Martin James Dillon was a candidate of the May, 1914 by-election to serve as Member of Parliament for the Ripon constituency. He ran for the Socialist Party and earned a total of 2,741 votes, but lost the election to Tory candidate Joseph Gerald Antsy.

Senator Fall

Albert Bacon Fall (November 26, 1861 – November 30, 1944) was a United States Senator from New Mexico and the Secretary of the Interior under President Warren G. Harding, infamous for his involvement in the Teapot Dome scandal.[42]

The Archduke

Franz Ferdinand (18 December 1863 – 28 June 1914) was an Archduke of Austria-Este, Austro-Hungarian and Royal Prince of Hungary and of Bohemia, and from 1889 until his death, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne.

His assassination in Sarajevo precipitated Austria-Hungary's declaration of war against Serbia. This caused the Central Powers (including Germany and Austria-Hungary) and the Allies of World War I (countries allied with Serbia or Serbia's allies) to declare war on each other, starting World War I. [43]

Mrs. Hughes: "The main topic here is the murder of the Austrian Archduke."

Mr. Carson: "Here and everywhere else."

— Episode 1.07

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Lord Henley

Robert Henley, 1st Earl of Northington (c. 1708 - 14 January 1772), was the Lord Chancellor of Great Britain. He was a member of the Whig Party in the parliament and was known for his wit and writing.[44]

In Shanley v Harvey (1763) 2 Eden 126, a claim was instituted by Shanley as administrator of the estate of his deceased niece.

Shanley had brought Harvey as a child slave, to England, 12 years earlier and had given him to his niece. She had him baptised and had changed his name. She became very ill and about an hour before her death, she gave Harvey about £800 in cash (a substantial sum in those days), asked him to pay the butcher's bill and to make good use of the money. After her death, Shanley brought an action against Harvey to recover the money.

Lord Henley, the Lord Chancellor, dismissed the action, with costs against Shanley. In his judgment he held that as soon as a person set foot on English soil, he or she became free and that a "negro" might maintain an action against his or her master for ill usage, together with an application for habeas corpus if detained. However, such comments were not necessary for the decision in the case, and in law were only obiter dictum and not binding on subsequent courts.[45]

Mrs. Hughes: "Mr. Ross. You have uncovered something about the past that Mr. Carson does not approve of. Well done."

Mr. Carson: "Not so fast, Mrs. Hughes. We led the world in the fight against slavery. Remember Lord Henley's judgement of 1763. If a man sets foot on English soil, then he is free."

— Episode 4.06

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Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the Nazi Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP); National Socialist German Workers Party).

Hitler was a decorated veteran of World War I. He joined the German Workers' Party (precursor of the NSDAP) in 1919, and became leader of the NSDAP in 1921. In 1923, he attempted a coup in Munich to seize power. The failed coup resulted in Hitler's imprisonment, during which time he wrote his memoir, Mein Kampf (My Struggle). After his release in 1924, Hitler gained popular support by attacking the Treaty of Versailles and promoting Pan-Germanism, antisemitism, and anti-communism with charismatic oratory and Nazi propaganda. Hitler frequently denounced international capitalism and communism as being part of a Jewish conspiracy.[46]

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson (April 13 [O.S. April 2] 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Father, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776) and the third President of the United States (1801–1809).[47]

Kerensky

Alexander Kerensky (4 May [O.S. 22 April] 1881 – 11 June 1970) was a major political leader before and during the Russian Revolutions of 1917.

Kerensky served as the second Prime Minister of the Russian Provisional Government until it was overthrown by the Bolsheviks under Vladimir Lenin in the October Revolution. He spent the remainder of his life in exile, dying in New York City in 1970 at the age of 89.[48]

Lenin

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (22 April [O.S. 10 April] 1870 – 21 January 1924) was a Russian communist revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He served as the leader of the Russian SFSR from 1917, and then concurrently as Premier of the Soviet Union from 1922, until his death. [49]

David Lloyd George

David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM PC (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was a British Liberal politician and statesman. He was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and led a Wartime Coalition Government between 1916 and 1922 and was the Leader of the Liberal Party from 1926 to 1931.[50]

George III

George III (George William Frederick (4 June 1738 – 29 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death. He was concurrently Duke and prince-elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg ("Hanover") in the Holy Roman Empire until his promotion to King of Hanover on 12 October 1814. He was the third British monarch of the House of Hanover, but unlike his two Hanoverian predecessors he was born in Britain, spoke English as his first language, and never visited Hanover.[51]

Robert: "I will. His forebarers have been tenants since the reign of George the third."

— Episode 4.05

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Ramsay MacDonald

James Ramsay MacDonald (12 October 1866 – 9 November 1937) was a British statesman who was the first ever Labour Party Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, leading a Labour Government in 1924, a Labour Government from 1929 to 1931, and a National Government from 1931 to 1935.[52]

Mary: "What is your main objection to Mr. MacDonald? That the Prime Minister is the son of a crofter[53]?"

Robert: "I couldn't care less if he was the son of Fu Manchu. What worries me is that our government is comitted to the destruction of people like us, and everything we stand for."

— Episode 5.01

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Machiavelli

Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (3 May 1469 – 21 June 1527) was an Italian historian, politician, diplomat, philosopher, humanist, and writer based in Florence during the Renaissance. He was for many years an official in the Florentine Republic, with responsibilities in diplomatic and military affairs. He was a founder of modern political science, and more specifically political ethics. He also wrote comedies, carnival songs, and poetry. His personal correspondence is renowned in the Italian language. He was Secretary to the Second Chancery of the Republic of Florence from 1498 to 1512, when the Medici were out of power. He wrote his masterpiece, The Prince, after the Medici had recovered power and he no longer held a position of responsibility in Florence.

"Machiavellianism" is a widely used negative term to characterize unscrupulous politicians of the sort Machiavelli described in The Prince. The book itself gained enormous notoriety and wide readership because the author seemed to be endorsing behavior often deemed as evil and immoral.[54]

Marie Antoinette

Marie Antoinette (2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) baptised Maria Antonia Josepha (or Josephina) Johanna, born an Archduchess of Austria, was Dauphine of France from 1770 to 1774 and Queen of France and Navarre from 1774 to 1792. She was the fifteenth and penultimate child of Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and Empress Maria Theresa.[55]

Countess Markievicz

Constance Georgine Markievicz, Countess Markievicz (4 February 1868 – 15 July 1927) was an Irish Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil politician, revolutionary nationalist, suffragette and socialist. In December 1918, she was the first woman elected to the British House of Commons, though she did not take her seat and, along with the other Sinn Féin TDs, formed the first Dáil Éireann. She was also one of the first women in the world to hold a cabinet position (Minister for Labour of the Irish Republic, 1919–1922). [56]

Matthew: "So, what was the deal you managed to extract from the home secretary?"

Robert: "They don’t want to make a martyr of him. And with Sybil, they think they could have another Maud Gonne on their hands, or Lady Gregory, or worse if they’re not careful."

Violet: "Lady Gregory, Countess Markievicz...why are the Irish rebels so well born?"

— Episode 3.04

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John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 – 8 May 1873) was an English philosopher, political economist and civil servant. He was an influential contributor to social theory, political theory and political economy. He has been called "the most influential English-speaking philosopher of the nineteenth century". Mill's conception of liberty justified the freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state control. He was a proponent of utilitarianism, an ethical theory developed by Jeremy Bentham. Hoping to remedy the problems found in an inductive approach to science, such as confirmation bias, he clearly set forth the premises of falsifiability as the key component in the scientific method. Mill was also a Member of Parliament and an important figure in liberal political philosophy.[57]

Trevor Andrew Morgan

Trevor Andrew Morgan was a candidate of the May, 1914 by-election to serve as Member of Parliament for the Ripon constituency. He ran for the Liberal Party and earned a total of 5,894 votes, but lost the election to Tory candidate Joseph Gerald Antsy.

The Tsar

Nicholas II (Nikolay Alexandrovich Romanov) (18 May [O.S. 6 May] 1868 – 17 July 1918) was the last Emperor of Russia, Grand Duke of Finland, and titular King of Poland. His official short title was Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias.[58]King George V of England was his first cousin.

Branson: "Kerensky's been made Prime Minister, but he won't go far enough for me. Lenin denounces the bourgeoisie along with the tsar. He wants a people's revolution. That's what I'm waiting for. Won't be long now."

Carson: "And what happened to the tsar?"

Branson: "Imprisoned in the Alexander Palace with all his family."

— Episode 2.03

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The Queen of Naples

Maria Carolina of Austria (13 August 1752 – 8 September 1814), sister to Marie Antoinette, was Queen of Naples and Sicily as the wife of King Ferdinand IV & III. As de facto ruler of her husband's kingdoms, Maria Carolina oversaw the promulgation of many reforms, including the revocation of the ban on Freemasonry, the enlargement of the navy under her favourite, John Acton, 6th Baronet, and the expulsion of Spanish influence. She was a proponent of enlightened absolutism until the advent of the French Revolution, when, in order to prevent its ideas gaining currency, she made Naples a police state.[59]

Archibald Primrose

Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, 1st Earl of Midlothian, KG, PC (7 May 1847 – 21 May 1929) was a British Liberal statesman and Prime Minister. In 1878, Rosebery married Hannah de Rothschild, the only child of the Jewish banker Baron Mayer de Rothschild, and the greatest British heiress of her day.

Rosebery first came to national attention in 1879-1880 by sponsoring the successful Midlothian campaign of William Ewart Gladstone. He briefly was in charge of Scottish affairs. This finest performance in office came as chairman of the London County Council in 1889. He entered the cabinet in 1885 and served twice as foreign minister, paying special attention to French and German affairs. He succeeded Gladstone as prime minister and leader of the Liberal party in 1894.[60]

Robespierre

Maximilien François Marie Isidore Robespierre (6 May 1758 – 28 July 1794) was a French lawyer and politician, and one of the best-known and most influential figures of the French Revolution.

The guillotine (called the "National Razor") became the symbol of the revolutionary cause, strengthened by a string of executions: King Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, the Girondins, Philippe Égalité (Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans), and Madame Roland, and others such as pioneering chemist Antoine Lavoisier, lost their lives under its blade. Through the Revolutionary Tribunal, the Terror's leaders exercised broad dictatorial powers and used them to instigate mass executions and political purges. The repression accelerated in June and July 1794, a period called la Grande Terreur (the Great Terror), and ended in the coup of 9 Thermidor Year II (27 July 1794), leading to the Thermidorian Reaction, in which several instigators of the Reign of Terror were executed, including Saint-Just and Robespierre.[61][62]

Mary: "So what new scheme are you working on to beat down the upper classes?"

Charles Blake: "You think me much more of a Robespierre than I really am."

— 2013 Christmas Special

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Jonathan Swire

Jonathan Swire, a Liberal Minister, is the brother of the late Reggie Swire, a solicitor.

Once, when his brother owed Sir Richard Carlisle a large amount of money and was unable to repay him, his niece Lavinia went to Carlisle to plead on her father's behalf. He made a deal with her: he would forgive her father's debt if she would deliver to him some papers of state in Jonathan's possession. She agreed, stole the papers from her uncle and delivered them to Sir Richard. The publication of information in the papers triggered the Marconi scandal.

The Kaiser

Wilhelm II or William II (Frederick William Victor Albert of Prussia; 27 January 1859 – 4 June 1941) was the last German Emperor (Kaiser) and King of Prussia, ruling the German Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia from 15 June 1888 to 9 November 1918. He was the eldest grandson of the British Queen Victoria and related to many monarchs and princes of Europe, two notable contemporary relations being his first cousin King George V of the United Kingdom, founder of the House of Windsor, and his second cousin Tsar Nicholas II of the House of Romanov, the last ruler of the Russian Empire before the Russian Revolution of 1917 which deposed the monarchy. [64]

Carson: "A German republic? No, I don't think so, Mr Branson. The Kaiser will go, I grant you, and maybe the Crown Prince, too, but there'll be a regency, mark my words. Monarchy is the lifeblood of Europe."

Branson: "Sorry Mr. Carson, but I think you will find that the kings and emperors have had their day; if President Wilson has anything to say about it."

— Episode 2.06

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Woodrow Wilson

Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856 – February 3, 1924) was the 28th President of the United States, in office from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913.[65]

Authors, Composers, Actors and Entertainers

Dante

Durante degli Alighieri simply referred to as Dante (c. 1265–1321), was a major Italian poet of the Middle Ages. His Divine Comedy, originally called La Comedia and later called Divina by Boccaccio, is widely considered the greatest literary work composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature.[66]

Theda Bara

Real name Theodosia Goodman. Also from Cincinnati, Cora's home town.

Theda Bara (July 29, 1885 – April 7, 1955) was an American silent film and stage actress.

Bara was one of the most popular actresses of the silent era, and one of cinema's earliest sex symbols. Her femme fatale roles earned her the nickname The Vamp (short for vampire). Bara made more than 40 films between 1914 and 1926, but most are now lost due to a fire that destroyed the majority of her films in 1937. After her marriage to Charles Brabin in 1921, she made two more feature films and retired from acting in 1926 having never appeared in a sound film. She died of stomach cancer at the age of 69.[67]

Carson: "Oh, you should see some of the gadgets in the kitchens. And the bathrooms, oh, goodness me. They're like something out of a film with Theda Bara."

Hughes: "I'm surprised you know who Theda Bara is."

Carson: "Oh, I get about, Mrs Hughes. I get about. "

— Episode 2.07

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John Barrymore

John Sidney Blyth (February 14 or 15, 1882 – May 29, 1942), known as John Barrymore and Jack Barrymore, was an American actor of stage, screen and radio. He first gained attention as a handsome stage actor in light comedy, then high drama and culminating in his portrayals in Shakespearean plays Hamlet and Richard III. His success continued with motion pictures in various genres in both the silent and sound eras. Barrymore's personal life has been the subject of much writing before and since his death in 1942. The most prominent member of a theatrical dynasty, he was the brother of Lionel and Ethel Barrymore.[68]

Bartok

Béla Viktor János Bartók (March 25, 1881 – September 26, 1945) was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Liszt are regarded as Hungary's greatest composers. Through his collection and analytical study of folk music, he was one of the founders of comparative musicology, which later became ethnomusicology.[69]

Emily Brontë

Emily Jane Brontë (30 July 1818 – 19 December 1848) was an English novelist and poet, best remembered for her only novel, Wuthering Heights, now considered a classic of English literature. She was born in the village of Thornton, West Riding of Yorkshire, in Northern England, to Maria Branwell and an Irish father Patrick Brontë. She was the fifth of six children, of which the two oldest, Maria and Elizabeth, died in childhood. Her other two sisters, Charlotte and Anne, became writers in their own right.[70]

Lord Byron

George Gordon Byron 6th Baron Byron, later George Gordon Noel, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), commonly known simply as Lord Byron, was an English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement. Among Byron's best-known works are the lengthy narrative poems Don Juan and Childe Harold's Pilgrimage and the short lyric "She Walks in Beauty." He is regarded as one of the greatest British poets and remains widely read and influential.

He traveled to fight against the Ottoman Empire in the Greek War of Independence, for which Greeks revere him as a national hero. He died at age 36 from a fever contracted while in Missolonghi in Greece.[71]

Violet: "It's too good, the one thing we don't want is a poet in the family."

Isobel: "Would it be so bad?"

Violet: "The only poet peer I am familiar with is Lord Byron, and I presume we all know how that ended?"

— Episode 4.05

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Ivy Close

Ivy Close (15 June 1890 – 4 December 1968) was a British actress. She acted in 44 films between 1912 and 1929.Her first husband was photographer and filmmaker Elwin Neame (1885-1923). Together they established Ivy Close Films in 1914, one of the first movie production companies founded by a film star.[72]

Alfred: "How about Ivy Close in The Ware Case? She made Lillian Gish look like a school marm."

Ivy: "Ivy Close, it's funny thinking of a film star having your own name."

— Episode 3.07

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Phyllis Dare

Phyllis Dare (15 August 1890 – 27 April 1975) born Phyllis Constance Haddie Dones in Chelsea, London, was an English singer and actress, famous for her performances in Edwardian musical comedy and other musical theatre in the first half of the 20th century.[73]

James: "I say, Phyllis Dare is going to the Theatre Royal in York. Miss Dare will appear in The Lady of the Rose, the hit musical of the London season."

Ivy: "Who is Phyllis Dare?"

James: "Only one of the Dare sisters"

— Episode 4.02

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della Francesca

Piero della Francesca (c. 1415 – 12 October 1492) was a painter of the Early Renaissance. As testified by Giorgio Vasari in his Lives of the Artists, to contemporaries he was also known as a mathematician and geometer. Nowadays Piero della Francesca is chiefly appreciated for his art. His painting was characterized by its serene humanism, its use of geometric forms and perspective. His most famous work is the cycle of frescoes The Legend of the True Cross in the church of San Francesco in the Tuscan town of Arezzo.[74]

Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens (7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's most memorable fictional characters and is generally regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian period. During his life, his works enjoyed unprecedented fame, and by the twentieth century his literary genius was broadly acknowledged by critics and scholars. His novels and short stories continue to be widely popular.[75]

Mrs. Hughes: "Mr. Carson, he is in the workhouse. And if you were wondering, it is as bad as if it were in a novel by Dickens."

Mr. Carson: "Haven't they closed the workhouses"

Mrs. Hughes: "No they haven't. Not all of them."

— Episode 4.01

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Douglas Fairbanks

Douglas Fairbanks (May 23, 1883 – December 12, 1939) was an American actor, screenwriter, director, and producer. He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films such as The Thief of Bagdad, Robin Hood, and The Mark of Zorro but spent the early part of his career making comedies.

An astute businessman, Fairbanks was a founding member of United Artists. Fairbanks was also a founding member of The Motion Picture Academy and hosted the first Oscars Ceremony in 1929. With his marriage to Mary Pickford in 1920s, the couple became Hollywood royalty and Fairbanks was referred to as "The King of Hollywood", a nickname later passed on to actor Clark Gable. His career rapidly declined however with the advent of the "talkies". His final film was The Private Life of Don Juan (1934).[76]

Lillian Gish

Lillian Diana Gish (October 14, 1893 – February 27, 1993) was an American stage, screen and television actress, director and writer whose film acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912 to 1987. Gish was called The First Lady of American Cinema. [77]

Elinor Glyn

Elinor Glyn née Sutherland (b. 17 October 1864 – d. 23 September 1943), was a British novelist and scriptwriter who specialised in romantic fiction which was considered scandalous for its time. She popularized the concept of it. Although her works are relatively tame by modern standards, she had tremendous influence on early 20th century popular culture and perhaps on the careers of notable Hollywood stars such as Rudolph Valentino, Gloria Swanson and Clara Bow in particular.[78]

Lady Gregory

Isabella Augusta, Lady Gregory (15 March 1852 – 22 May 1932), born Isabella Augusta Persse, was an Irish dramatist, folklorist and theatre manager. With William Butler Yeats and Edward Martyn, she co-founded the Irish Literary Theatre and the Abbey Theatre, and wrote numerous short works for both companies. Lady Gregory produced a number of books of retellings of stories taken from Irish mythology. Born into a class that identified closely with British rule, her conversion to cultural nationalism, as evidenced by her writings, was emblematic of many of the political struggles to occur in Ireland during her lifetime.[79]

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne born Nathaniel Hathorne (July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer.

Much of Hawthorne's writing centers on New England, many works featuring moral allegories with a Puritan inspiration. His fiction works are considered part of the Romantic movement and, more specifically, Dark romanticism. His themes often center on the inherent evil and sin of humanity, and his works often have moral messages and deep psychological complexity. His published works include novels, short stories, and a biography of his friend Franklin Pierce.[80]

Edmond Hoyle

Edmond Hoyle (1672 - August 29, 1769) was an English writer known for his books on rules and play for card games. The phrase "according to Hoyle" came about in reference to his perceived-authority on the subject of card games.

Sampson: "To be perfectly honest I wasn't sure he was playing strictly according to Hoyle but, we'll leave it since the poor chap's missing."

— 2013 Christmas Special

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Dr. Johnson

Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 [O.S. 7 September] – 13 December 1784), often referred to as Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. Johnson was a devout Anglican and committed Tory, and has been described as "arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history". He is also the subject of "the most famous single work of biographical art in the whole of literature": James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson.[81]

Karl Marx

Karl Heinrich Marx (5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. Marx's work in economics laid the basis for the current understanding of labour and its relation to capital, and has influenced much of subsequent economic thought. He published numerous books during his lifetime, the most notable being The Communist Manifesto (1848) and Das Kapital (1867–1894).[83]

Tom Mix

Thomas Edwin "Tom" Mix (born Thomas Hezikiah Mix; January 6, 1880 – October 12, 1940) was an American film actor and the star of many early Western movies. Between 1909 and 1935, Mix appeared in 291 films, all but nine of which were silent movies. He was Hollywood's first Western megastar and is noted as having helped define the genre for all cowboy actors who followed.[84]

O'Brien: "Listen to yourself. You sound like Tom Mix in a Wild West picture show. Stop warning me and go and lay out His Lordship’s pyjamas."

— Episode 3.02

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Pola Negri

Pola Negri (born Barbara Apolonia Chałupec, 3 January 1897 – 1 August 1987) was a Polish stage and film actress who achieved worldwide fame during the silent and golden eras of Hollywood and European film for her tragedienne and femme fatale roles.

She was the first European film star to be invited to Hollywood, and became one of the most popular actresses in American silent film. Her varied career included work as an actress in theatre and vaudeville; as a singer and recording artist; as an author; and as a ballerina.[85]

Mabel Normand

Mabel Normand was an American silent film comedienne and actress. She was a popular star of Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios and is noted as one of the film industry's first female screenwriters, producers and directors. Onscreen she co-starred in commercially successful films with Charles Chaplin and Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle more than a dozen times each, occasionally writing and directing movies featuring Chaplin as her leading man. At the height of her career in the late 1910s and early 1920s, Normand had her own movie studio and production company.[86]

Ethel: "Photoplay about Mable Normand. She was nothing when she started, you know. Her father was a carpenter and they'd no money, and now she's a shining film star. "

— Episode 2.01

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Puccini

Giacomo Puccini (22 December 1858 – 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer whose operas are among the important operas played as standards.

Puccini has been called "the greatest composer of Italian opera after Verdi". While his early work was rooted in traditional late-19th-century romantic Italian opera, he successfully developed his work in the realistic verismo style, of which he became one of the leading exponents.[87]

Rosetti

Christina Rosetti (5 December 1830 – 29 December 1894) Her father was the poet Gabriele Rossetti; her brother was major Pre-Raphaelite painter and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Christina Rossetti is best known for her ballads, her religious lyrics, and her themes of death, salvation, and redemption. Rossetti's best-known work, Goblin Market and Other Poems, was published in 1862. The collection established Rossetti as a significant voice in Victorian poetry. The lines quoted in Episode 4.03 are from her poem, Remember (1862):
Better by far you should forget and smileThan that you should remember and be sad.[88]

Violet: "Better by far that you should forget his smile, than to remember and be sad."

Isobel: "But Rosetti was writing about her own death, not her child's."

— Episode 4.03

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Ruskin

John Ruskin (8 February 1819 – 20 January 1900) was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture, myth to ornithology, literature to education, and botany to political economy. His writing styles and literary forms were equally varied. Ruskin penned essays and treatises, poetry and lectures, travel guides and manuals, letters and even a fairy tale. The elaborate style that characterised his earliest writing on art was later superseded by a preference for plainer language designed to communicate his ideas more effectively. In all of his writing, he emphasised the connections between nature, art and society. He also made detailed sketches and paintings of rocks, plants, birds, landscapes, and architectural structures and ornamentation.[89]

Robert: "If it had been left to that bloody fool, Branson. You should see what he reads. It's all Marx and Ruskin and John Stuart Mill. I ask you. "

Mary: "Papa prefers the servants to read the bible and letters from home."

— Episode 1.06

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Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (26 April 1564 (baptised) – 23 April 1616) was an English poet, playwright and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon". His extant works, including some collaborations, consist of about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, the authorship of some of which is uncertain. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.[90]

Mrs. Patmore: "It doesn't matter. He's dying. Just say nice, warm, comforting things. Make him feel loved. You don't have to be Shakespeare."

— Episode 2.05

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Marie Stopes

Marie Charlotte Carmichael Stopes (15 October 1880 – 2 October 1958) was a British author, palaeobotanist, academic, eugenicist, campaigner for women's rights, and pioneer in the field of birth control. Her contributions to plant palaeontology and coal classification were significant, and she was the first female academic on the faculty of the University of Manchester. With her second husband Humphrey Verdon Roe she founded the first birth control clinic in Britain. Stopes edited the newsletter Birth Control News which gave explicit practical advice. Her sex manual Married Love was controversial and influential: it brought the subject of birth control into wide public discourse. She was never in favour of abortion, arguing that preventing conception was all that was needed.[91]

Lytton Strachey

Giles Lytton Strachey (1 March 1880 – 21 January 1932) was a British writer and critic.

A founding member of the Bloomsbury Group[92] and author of Eminent Victorians, he is best known for establishing a new form of biography in which psychological insight and sympathy are combined with irreverence and wit. His biography Queen Victoria (1921) was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.[93]

Ellen Terry

Dame Ellen Terry GBE, born Alice Ellen Terry (27 February 1847 – 21 July 1928) was an English stage actress who became the leading Shakespearean actress in Britain. Born into a family of actors, Terry began performing as a child, acting in Shakespeare plays in London and toured throughout the British provinces as a teen.

In 1878 she joined Henry Irving's company as his leading lady, and for more than the next two decades she was considered the leading Shakespearean and comic actress in Britain. Two of her most famous roles were Portia in The Merchant of Venice and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing. She and Irving also toured with great success in America and Britain.

In 1903 Terry took over management of London's Imperial Theatre, focusing on the plays of George Bernard Shaw and Henrik Ibsen. The venture was a financial failure, and Terry turned to touring and lecturing. She continued to find acting success until 1920, while also appearing in films until 1922. Her career lasted nearly seven decades.[94]

Rudolph Valentino

Rodolfo Alfonso Raffaello Pierre Filibert Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguolla professionally known as Rudolph Valentino (May 6, 1895 – August 23, 1926), was an Italian actor who starred in several well-known silent films including The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Sheik, Blood and Sand, The Eagle, and The Son of the Sheik. An early pop icon, a sex symbol of the 1920s, he was known as the "Latin Lover" or simply as "Valentino". He had applied for American citizenship shortly before his death, which occurred at age 31, causing mass hysteria among his female fans and further propelling him into icon status.[95]

Thomas: "It's not that easy. Every Tom, Dick, and Harry's looking for work these days and they don't all have a hand like a Jules Verne experiment."

— Episode 2.08

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H. G. Wells

Herbert George "H. G." Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946) was an English writer, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing textbooks and rules for war games. Wells is sometimes called "The Father of Science Fiction", as are Jules Verne and Hugo Gernsback. His most notable science fiction works include The War of the Worlds, The Time Machine, The Invisible Man and The Island of Doctor Moreau.[97]

Matthew: "It seems very wise to get a telephone now. If there is a war, it may be very hard to have one installed in a private house."

Robert: "Well, let me show you where we're going to put it."

Violet: "First electricity, now telephones. Sometimes I feel as if I were living in an H.G. Wells novel. But the young are all so calm about change, aren't they? Look at Matthew. I do admire him."

— Episode 1.07

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Oscar Wilde

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. Today he is remembered for his epigrams, his only novel (The Picture of Dorian Gray), his plays, and the circumstances of his imprisonment and early death.[98]

Bates: "You have known about Mr. Barrow all along. So what has changed now?"

— Episode 3.08

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Sarah Wilson

Sarah Wilson (1865 – 22 October 1929), born Lady Sarah Isabella Augusta Spencer-Churchill, became the first woman war correspondent in 1899, when she was recruited by Alfred Harmsworth to cover the Siege of Mafeking for the Daily Mail during the Boer War. She was the youngest daughter of John Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough.[99]

Violet: "What do you mean you wrote to a newspaper? No lady writes to a newspaper."

Edith: "What about Lady Sarah Wilson? She’s the daughter of a duke and she worked as a war journalist."

Violet: "Well, she’s a Churchill. The Churchills are different."

— Episode 3.04

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Other Historic Figures

Archimedes

Archimedes of Syracuse (c. 287 BC – c. 212 BC) was an Ancient Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer. Although few details of his life are known, he is regarded as one of the leading scientists in classical antiquity.

Generally considered the greatest mathematician of antiquity and one of the greatest of all time, Archimedes anticipated modern calculus and analysis by applying concepts of infinitesimals and the method of exhaustion to derive and rigorously prove a range of geometrical theorems, including the area of a circle, the surface area and volume of a sphere, and the area under a parabola.[100]

Baden-Powell

Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell (22 February 1857 – 8 January 1941), also known as B-P or Lord Baden-Powell, was a lieutenant-general in the British Army, writer, founder of the Scout Movement and first Chief Scout of The Boy Scouts Association.[101]

Adrienne Bolland

Adrienne Bolland, born Boland, (25 November 1895 – 18 March 1975) was a French test pilot and the first woman to fly over the Andes between Chile and Argentina. She was later described as "France's most accomplished female aviator", setting a woman's record for loops done in an hour. The French government eventually recognized her with the Legion of Honor and other awards. Since her death, she has been commemorated with a postage stamp.[102]

Emily Davison

Emily Wilding Davison (11 October 1872 – 8 June 1913) was a militant activist who fought for women's suffrage in Britain. She was jailed on nine occasions and force-fed 49 times. She is best known for stepping in front of King George V's horse Anmer at the Epsom Derby on 4 June 1913, sustaining injuries that resulted in her death four days later. Emily Davison's funeral on 14 June 1913 organised by the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). Thousands of suffragettes accompanied the coffin and tens of thousands of people lined the streets of London.[103]

Unnamed speaker: "Last June saw Emily Davison crushed to death beneath the hooves of the king’s horse! Will the summer of 1914 prove as fatal for the hopes of women? It cannot! This historic by-election can be the first step of the journey to women’s equality!"

Unnamed man: "But why stop there? Let’s get the dogs up and listen to them bark!"

— Episode 1.06

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Reginald Dyer

Colonel Reginald Edward Harry Dyer CB (9 October 1864 – 23 July 1927) was a British officer who, as a temporary brigadier general, was responsible for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar (in the British Indian province of Punjab). Dyer was removed from duty, but he became a celebrated hero in Britain, particularly among people with connections to the British Raj. Some historians argue the episode was a decisive step towards the end of British rule in India.[104]

Escoffier

Georges Auguste Escoffier (28 October 1846 – 12 February 1935) was a French chef, restaurateur and culinary writer who popularized and updated traditional French cooking methods. He is a legendary figure among chefs and gourmets, and was one of the most important leaders in the development of modern French cuisine.[105]

Arsene Avignon: "In 1917 at our sister hotel in New York, the chef, M. [?], made a soup made popular by M. [?] and the great M. Escoffier. What did he do?"

Student: "He served it cold."

— Episode 4.05

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Guy Fawkes

Guy Fawkes (13 April 1570 – 31 January 1606), also known as Guido Fawkes, the name he adopted while fighting for the Spanish in the Low Countries, was a member of a group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605.[106]

Maud Gonne

Maud Gonne MacBride (21 December 1866 – 27 April 1953) was an English-born Irish revolutionary, feminist and actress, best remembered for her turbulent relationship with poet William Butler Yeats. Of Anglo-Irish stock and birth, she was won over to Irish nationalism by the plight of evicted people in the Land Wars. She was also active in Home Rule activities.[107]

Thomas Hobson

Thomas Hobson (1544–1631) was a livery stable owner in Cambridge, England. To rotate the use of his horses, he offered customers the choice of either taking the horse in the stall nearest the door or taking none at all. The phrase Hobson's Choice is said to have originated from him[108].

Jack Johnson

John Arthur "Jack" Johnson (March 31, 1878 – June 10, 1946), nicknamed the Galveston Giant. was an American boxer. At the height of the Jim Crow era, Johnson became the first African American world heavyweight boxing champion (1908–1915). In a documentary about his life, Ken Burns notes that "for more than thirteen years, Jack Johnson was the most famous and the most notorious African-American on Earth. [109]

Rosa Luxemburg

Rosa Luxemburg (5 March 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a Marxist theorist, philosopher, economist and revolutionary socialist of Polish-Jewish descent who became a naturalized German citizen. She was successively a member of the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (SDKPiL), the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), the Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD), and the Communist Party of Germany (KPD).

In response to the uprising, Social Democratic leader Friedrich Ebert ordered the Freikorps to destroy the left-wing revolution. Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were captured in Berlin on 15 January 1919 by the Freikorps' Garde-Kavallerie-Schützendivision. Its commander, Captain Waldemar Pabst, along with Lieutenant Horst von Pflugk-Harttung, questioned them violently and then gave the order to execute them. Luxemburg was knocked down with a rifle butt by soldier Otto Runge, then shot in the head, either by Lieutenant Kurt Vogel or Lieutenant Hermann Souchon; her body was flung into Berlin's Landwehr Canal.[110]

Mr. Molyneux

Mr. Molyneux is a designer from Paris with whom Cora has a fitting in London. It most likely refers to Edward Molyneux (5 September 1891 in Hampstead, London – 23 March 1974 in Monte Carlo), a leading British fashion designer whose salon in Paris was in operation from 1919 until 1950.[111]

Sylvia Pankhurst

Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst (5 May 1882 – 27 September 1960) was an English campaigner for the suffragist movement in the United Kingdom. She was for a time a prominent left communist who then devoted herself to the cause of anti-fascism.

During the First World War, Sylvia was horrified to see her mother, Emmeline, and her sister, Christabel, become enthusiastic supporters of the war drive and campaigning in favour of military conscription. She herself was opposed to the war. Her organization attempted to organize the defence of the interests of women in the poorer parts of London. It set up "cost-price" restaurants to feed the hungry without the taint of charity. It also established a toy factory in order to give work to women who had become unemployed because of the war.[112]

Branson: "I'm sorry. I'll not deny it. I never thought they'd do it. But sometimes a future needs terrible sacrifices. You thought that once. "

Sybil: "If you mean my politics, you know we've agreed to put that to one side until the war is won."

Branson: "Your lot did. But Sylvia Pankhurst was all for fighting on."

Sybil: "Don't badger me, please!"

— Episode 2.05

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Charles Ponzi

Carlo Pietro Giovanni Guglielmo Tebaldo Ponzi (March 3, 1882 – January 18, 1949), commonly known as Charles Ponzi, was an Italian businessman and con artist in the U.S. and Canada. His aliases include Charles Ponci, Carlo and Charles P. Bianchi. Born in Italy, he became known in the early 1920s as a swindler in North America for his money making scheme. Charles Ponzi promised clients a 50% profit within 45 days, or 100% profit within 90 days, by buying discounted postal reply coupons in other countries and redeeming them at face value in the United States as a form of arbitrage. In reality, Ponzi was paying early investors using the investments of later investors. This type of scheme is now known as a "Ponzi scheme". His scheme ran for over a year before it collapsed, costing his "investors" $20 million.[113]

The Pope

Pope Benedict XV (21 November 1854 – 22 January 1922), born Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa, was the head of the Catholic Church from 3 September 1914 to his death in 1922. His pontificate was largely overshadowed by World War I and its political, social and humanitarian consequences in Europe.[114]

Violet: "Not me! The Dowager Duchess of Norfork is a dear friend, and she is more Catholic than the Pope!"

— Episode 3.06

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Lord and Lady Powerscourt

Mervyn Richard Wingfield (16 July 1880 – 21 March 1947) and Sybil Pleydell-Bouverie were Irish peers where he was the 8th Viscount Powerscourt.

He was born to Mervyn Wingfield, 7th Viscount Powerscourt, whom he succeeded as Viscount Powerscourt in 1904. He was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Wicklow on 15 February 1910 and created a Knight of the Order of St Patrick on 18 April 1916. He died on 21 March 1947.

In 1903, he married Sybil Pleydell-Bouverie: they had three children, including Mervyn Patrick Wingfield, 9th Viscount Powerscourt. Lady Powerscourt served as the Girl Guides Deputy Chief Commissioner for Ireland.

They are great-grandparents of Sarah, Duchess of York through her mother Susan Barrantes, who is Powerscourt's granddaughter.[115]

This Princip Fellow

Gavrilo Princip (25 July [O.S. 13 July] 1894 – 28 April 1918) was a Bosnian Serb who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. Princip and his accomplices were arrested and implicated a number of members of the Serbian military, leading Austria-Hungary to issue a démarche to Serbia known as the July Ultimatum. This was used as pretext for Austria-Hungary's invasion on Serbia, which then led to World War I.[116]

Thomas: "They've arrested this Princip fellow and his gang. All Serbian and members of the Black Hand."

— Episode 1.07

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Hannah de Rothschild

Hannah Primrose, Countess of Rosebery (27 July 1851 – 19 November 1890) was the daughter of Mayer de Rothschild and his wife Juliana, née Cohen. Upon the death of her father in 1874 she became the richest woman in Britain.

During the final quarter of the 19th century her husband, the 5th Earl of Rosebery, was one of the most celebrated figures in Britain, an influential millionaire and politician, whose charm, wit, charisma and public popularity gave him such standing that he "almost eclipsed royalty." Yet his Jewish wife, during her lifetime regarded as dull, overweight and lacking in beauty, remains an enigmatic figure largely ignored by historians and often regarded as notable only for financing her husband's three ambitions: to marry an heiress, win the Epsom Derby, and become Prime Minister (the second and third of these possibly apocryphal ambitions were achieved after her death). In truth, she was her husband's driving force and motivation.[117]

Wat Tyler

Wat Tyler (died 15 June 1381) was a leader of the 1381 Peasants' Revolt in England. He marched a group of protesters from Canterbury to the capital to oppose the institution of a poll tax. While the brief rebellion enjoyed early success, Tyler was killed by officers of King Richard II during negotiations at Smithfield in London.[119]

Characters from Fiction, Literature and Scripture

Andromeda, Cepheus and Perseus

Andromeda, Cepheus and Perseus
On the way back to Seriphos Island, Perseus stopped in the kingdom of Ethiopia. This mythical Ethiopia was ruled by King Cepheus and Queen Cassiopeia. Cassiopeia, having boasted her daughter Andromeda equal in beauty to the Nereids, drew down the vengeance of Poseidon, who sent an inundation on the land and a sea serpent, Cetus, which destroyed man and beast. The oracle of Ammon announced that no relief would be found until the king exposed his daughter Andromeda to the monster, and so she was fastened naked to a rock on the shore. Perseus slew the monster and, setting her free, claimed her in marriage.[120]

Mary: "Her father was King Cepheus, whose country was being ravaged by storms, and in the end, he decided the only way to appease the gods was to sacrifice his eldest daughter to a hideous sea monster. So, they chained her naked to a rock..."

Matthew: "But the sea monster didn't get her, did he?"

Mary: "No. Just when it seemed he was the only solution to her father's problems, she was rescued."

Matthew: "By Perseus."

— Episode 1.02

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Angel Clare

Angel Clare is the son of a preacher and suitor to Tess Durbeyfield in the Thomas Hardy novel Tess of the d'Urbervilles. Tess believes she is unworthy of his proposal due to a prior rape and resulting child that only lived a couple days.

Augeus

Augeus In Greek mythology, Augeas (or Augeias), whose name means "bright", was king of Elis and father of Epicaste. Some say that Augeas was one of the Argonauts. He is best known for his stables, which housed the single greatest number of cattle in the country and had never been cleaned—until the time of the great hero Heracles. The fifth Labour of Heracles[121] (Hercules in Latin) was to clean the Augean stables.[122]

Becky Sharpe

Becky Sharp is the anti-heroine of William Makepeace Thackeray's[123] satirical novel Vanity Fair[124]. A cynical social climber who uses her charms to fascinate and seduce upper-class men, Sharp is contrasted with the clinging, dependent heroine Amelia Sedley. She befriends Amelia at an expensive girls school where she is given a place because her father teaches there, and uses her as a stepping stone to gain social position. Sharp functions as a picara — a picaresque heroine — or by being a social outsider who is able to expose the manners of the upper gentry to ridicule. Her name ("sharp" having connotations of a "sharper" or con-man) and function suggest that Thackeray intended her to be unsympathetic, and yet she became one of his most popular creations.[125]

Belshazzar

Belshazzar "Bel, protect the king", sometimes called Balthazar, was a 6th-century BC prince of Babylon, the son of Nabonidus and the last king of Babylon, according to the Book of Daniel in the Hebrew Bible. In Daniel 5 and 8, Belshazzar is the King of Babylon before the advent of the Medes and Persians. Although there is evidence that Belshazzar existed, his famous narrative and its details are only recorded in the Book of Daniel, which tells the story of Belshazzar seeing the writing on the wall.

Matthew: "Seriously, I can only relax because I know that you have a real life coming. If I ever thought I was putting that in jeopardy, I’d go away and never see you again."

Mary: "You don’t mean that."

Matthew: "But I do. I am the cat that walks by himself and all places are alike to me. I have nothing to give and nothing to share. If you were not engaged to be married, I wouldn’t let you anywhere near me."

— Episode 2.06

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Fu Manchu

Dr. Fu Manchu is a fictional character introduced in a series of novels by British author Sax Rohmer during the first half of the 20th century. The character was also featured extensively in cinema, television, radio, comic strips and comic books for over 90 years, and has become an archetype of the evil criminal genius while lending the name to the Fu Manchu moustache.[127]

Gunga Din

Gunga Din is the principle character in a rhyming narrative poem by Rudyard Kipling[128], told from the point of view of an English soldier in India, about an Indian water-bearer (a "Bhishti") who saves the soldier's life but is soon shot and killed. In the final three lines, the soldier regrets the abuse he dealt to Din and admits that Din is the better man of the two for sacrificing his own life to save another. [129]

Isobel: "Are you thinking of getting married Dr. Clarkson, because if you are you are a better man than I am Gunga Din."

Dr. Clarkson: "Why"

Isobel: "Well, with good friends like you I am enjoying life as it is and I wouldn't want to risk things by changing it."

— 2012 Christmas Special

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Iphigenia

Iphigenia is a daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra in Greek mythology, whom Agamemnon is commanded to kill as a sacrifice to allow his ships to sail to Troy. In Attic accounts, her name means "strong-born", "born to strength", or "she who causes the birth of strong offspring."[130]

Cora: "Before you scold me, it’s no good pretending Mary is not a good deal too attached to Matthew."

Robert: "So you summon Lavinia? To be sacrificed like some latter day Iphigenia doomed to push his chair through all eternity?"

Cora: "Robert. It’s quite simple. Do you want Mary’s marriage to be a success? Do you want grandchildren?"

Robert: "Sometimes, Cora, you can be curiously unfeeling."

— Episode 2.06

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Juliet

Juliet Capulet is the heroine of William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet.[131] She falls in love with Romeo Montague, though their fathers' and respective families are rivals. Nevertheless they marry in secret. When her parents try to force her into a marriage with another nobleman, she drinks a potion that makes her appear dead. Unfortunately, Romeo does not know what she did and believes her to have died. She awakes shortly after he enters the tomb and commits suicide. She follows in suit. Their deaths and now revealed marriage ends their families' feud.

Violet confronts Matthew and tells him Mary is still in love with him after he announces his intention to marry Lavinia. Violet says that Mary looked like Juliet upon awakening in the tomb when he made the announcement.

Violet: "I was watching her the other night when you spoke of your wedding. She looked like...Juliet on awakening in the tomb."

— Episode 2.07

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Long John Silver

Long John Silver is a fictional character in the novel Treasure Island (1883) by Robert Louis Stevenson. In the novel, he is a cunning and opportunistic pirate who was quartermaster under the notorious Captain Flint. Long John Silver had a pet parrot called Captain Flint, often seen sitting on his shoulder where she would nibble on seeds. Silver claims to have served in the Royal Navy and lost his leg under "the immortal Hawke". "His left leg was cut off close by the hip, and under the left shoulder he carried a crutch, which he managed with wonderful dexterity, hopping about upon it like a bird". [132]

O'Brien: "You should've spoken up when you had the chance. Don't make the same mistake next time."

Thomas: "Who says there'll be a next time?"

— Episode 1.01

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Mrs. Bennet

Mrs Bennet appears in the novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen[133]. She is the wife of her social superior Mr. Bennet and mother of five daughters including Elizabeth. She is frivolous, excitable, and narrow-minded, and she imagines herself susceptible to attacks of tremors and palpitations. Her public manners and social climbing are embarrassing to Jane and Elizabeth. Her favourite daughter is the youngest, Lydia, who reminds her of herself when younger, though she values the beauty of the eldest, Jane. Her main ambition in life is to marry her daughters to wealthy men.[134]

Lady Shackleton: "Of course a single peer with a good estate won't be lonely long if he doesn't want to be."

Violet: "You sound like Mrs. Bennet"

— Episode 5.01

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Princess Aurora / Sleeping Beauty

Princess Aurora is one of the names associated with the princess in Sleeping Beauty[135] from The Beauty Sleeping in the Wood (La Belle au bois dormant) by Charles Perrault and Little Briar Rose (Dornröschen) by the Brothers Grimm. The name was not firmly associated with Sleeping Beauty until the 1959 Disney film by the same name.

Simon Legree

Simon Legree is a character appearing in Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly by American novelist Harriet Beecher Stowe[136]. Simon Legree is a cruel slave owner, a Northerner (US) by birth whose name has become synonymous with greed. He is arguably the novel's main antagonist.[137]

Timothy Drewe: "You mean you want to farm the land yourself. Then it is all settled."

Robert: "Mr. Drewe, it is no good painting me as Simon Legree. We left your father a long time to get straight and left him alone at the end of his life."

— Episode 4.05

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Lady of Shalott

The Lady of Shalott is a Victorian ballad by the English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson[138]. He wrote two versions of the poem. The poem was loosely based on the Arthurian legend of Elaine of Astolat, as recounted in a thirteenth-century Italian novella titled Donna di Scalotta, with the earlier version being closer to the source material than the later. Tennyson focused on the Lady's isolation in the tower and her decision to participate in the living world, two subjects not even mentioned in Donna di Scalotta.[139]

Isobel: "I know, I don't want her to spend her life in sorrow, she isn't the Lady of Shalott."

— Episode 4.03

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Methuselah

Methuselah[140] "Man of the dart/spear", or alternatively "his death shall bring judgment" is the man in the Hebrew Bible reported to have lived the longest. Extra-biblical tradition maintains that he died on the 11th of Cheshvan of the year 1656 (Anno Mundi, after Creation), at the age of 969, seven days before the beginning of the Great Flood. Methuselah was the son of Enoch and the grandfather of Noah.

The name Methuselah, or the phrase "old as Methuselah", is commonly used to refer to any living thing reaching great age.

Mrs. Tanqueray (2nd)

Paula Tanqueray, previously Jarman The Second Mrs. Tanqueray is a character in an eponymous play by Sir Arthur Wing Pinero[141]. It adopts the 'Woman with a past' plot, popular in nineteenth century melodrama.

The play opens with a late night dinner between the widower Mr Tanqueray and some of his long time professional friends. All are upper class members of British Society, and are very disturbed when they learn of the upcoming second marriage of Tanqueray to a Mrs Paula Jarman, a lower class woman with a known sexual past.

As the play progresses we see the misery of the mismatched couple and their shared efforts to foster a bond between the young, but impeccably proper Miss Eillean Tanqueray and her young unhappy stepmother. This is compromised when Mrs Tanqueray learns the identity of her stepdaughter's fiancé; he is the man who ruined her, years ago. She reveals her knowledge to her husband, who prevents the marriage and alienates his daughter. This alienation spreads and husband and wife, father and daughter, step-parent and child are all angered and alone. When the daughter learns the reasons behind her disappointment she is struck with pity and makes a speech about trying again with her stepmother, only to go to her and find her dead, apparently by suicide.[142]

Rosamund: "You're not being fair. I will support you whatever you decide...Just as Cora will, and Robert."

Edith: "That sounds like a speech from 'The Second Mrs. Tanqueray'. But you don't mean a word of it."

— Episode 4.07

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Romeo

Romeo Montague is the hero of William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet, a tragedy written early in his career about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately reconcile their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime and, along with Hamlet, is one of his most frequently performed plays. Today, the title characters are regarded as archetypal young lovers.

Sydney Carton

Sydney Carton is a central character in the novel A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. He is a shrewd young Englishman and sometime junior to his fellow barrister C.J. Stryver. In the novel, he is seen to be a drunkard, self-indulgent and self-pitying because of his wasted life. He has a strong, unrequited love for Lucie Manette.[143]

Carson: "And now my disgrace is complete. My lord, you have my resignation."

Robert: "Really, Carson, there's no need to be quite so melodramatic. You're not playing Sydney Carton."

— Episode 1.02

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Tess of the d'Urbervilles

Tess Durbeyfield is the principle character in the Thomas Hardy[144] novel Tess of the d'Urbervilles[145]. Tess, through her father, believes they are related to the wealthy d'Urbervilles, not realizing that while her descent is authentic, the modern d'Urbervilles had purchased the name, and is raped by "cousin" Alec d'Urbervilles.

Several years later the son of a preacher named Angel Clare proposes to her. This puts her in a painful dilemma, Angel obviously thinks her a virgin and she shrinks from confessing her past.

Mary: "It was lust, Matthew! Or a need for excitement, or something in him that I...Oh, God, what difference does it make? I’m Tess of the d'Urbervilles to your Angel Clare. I have fallen. I am impure."

Matthew: "Don’t joke. Don’t make it little, not when I’m trying to understand."

Mary: "Thank you for that. But the fact remains...that I am made different by it. Things have changed between us."

— 2011 Christmas Special

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Usher

Roderick Usher is the subject of the short story The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe[146], published in 1839. The story is doubly referring, applying to both the structure and the family.[147]

Corporal Frank Brown

Corporal Frank Brown was a corporal who fought for the British in the Great War, in the Duke of Manchester's Own regiment. He died sometime before 1919, and was buried at the cemetery in Downton, by Thomas Jackson and William Mason, who served in the same regiment.

Jack Courtenay

Jack Courtenay was Lt. Edward Courtenay's youngest brother. When his brother became blind from mustard gas in 1917, his family wrote to him saying that Jack had Edward's best interest at heart, having decided to take Edward's place in the army.

Thomas: ""Things cannot be as they were and, whatever you might think, Jack has your best interest at heart.""

Lizzy Gregson

Michael tells Edith Crawley that his wife is insane, and was placed in an asylum some time before 1920. He goes on to tell Edith that Lizzy used to be a wonderful person whom he loved very much, and that it was very hard for him to finally accept that the woman he knew and loved was, in his words, "gone" and "wouldn't be coming back".

He wants to marry Edith by 1921, but they both already know it is impossible for Michael to divorce her, because being a lunatic does not make Lizzy responsible in the eyes of the law, so she is neither the guilty nor the innocent party.

However, by 1922 Michael, determined to be with Edith, had learned that in other countries insanity is legal grounds for divorce. He tells her that he has learned if he becomes a German citizen, he can divorce Lizzy.

Thomas Jackson

Private Thomas Jackson was a private who fought for the British in the Great War, in the Duke of Manchester's Own regiment. He died sometime before 1919, and was buried at the cemetery in Downton, by Corporal Frank Brown and William Mason, who served in the same regiment.

Monk

Alice Neal

Mrs Hughes: "And you were fond of her?"

Carson: "I was. But people drift in and out of your life, don't they? Truth to tell, I felt she treated me badly. What does it matter anyway? We shout and scream and wail and cry but in the end we must all die."

Alice Neal (died c. 1917) was an old romantic interest of Charles Carson, in the 1890s. Carson kept a photograph of her as a memento.

Alice, however, chose Charles Grigg over Carson, and he never saw her again. According to Grigg, however, their relationship had never worked, and they separated. When she was about to die, Grigg visited her at St Thomas' Hospital and she said Carson was the better man and that she loved him, but she had been a fool and could not see it at the time.

Mrs Hughes later presents Carson with a present: a framed photograph of Alice, so he can always remember her and the staff will think of him as more human.

Clive Pullbrook

Clive Pullbrook was an acquaintance of Reggie Swire's, who was supposed to be the second-in-line to receive the entirety of Swire's fortune. Reginald Swire, in the event of the death of his only daughter, left a last will which left his fortune to one of three men. The fortune which was much greater than his life seemed to suggest was to remain undivided and going to the first man on the list provided that he survive Reggie. Clive Pullbrook is the second man on the list, the first one having died. Before late 1919, Mr Pullbrook travelled to India, to visit some tea plantations that he owned there. He went missing there in India, and had never been seen again. After Swire's death, in the last few days of December 1919, he was impossible to reach. People were sent to search for him and it was discovered that he had been killed. The question remained as to whether he had died before or after Swire. Had he died before Swire then the money went to Matthew Crawley the third-in-line, but had he died after Swire the money would go to Pullbrook's heirs. It was determined that he died before, thus Matthew Crawley, was the heir. His receiving the money was delayed until a death certificate could be obtained from India, not an immediate task. Eventually the certificate arrived and was brought to Matthew by Swire's lawyer Mr. Charkham. Matthew Crawley was then able to claim the money and invested it in Downton Abbey. Swire wrote a letter to each of his potential heirs. As Pullbrook did not survive to inherit, his letter was not delivered. Mary Crawley at one point calls him Mr. Pillbox.

↑Violet mentions the Duchess as "Dowager" and being a dear friend; Violet is in her 70s in Series 3, and the 15th Duke's widow, Gwendolyn Constable-Maxwell, was only 43 at the time, and thus unlikely to be a "dear friend of Violet, being more than a generation out.

↑In the book, Downton Abbey The Complete Scripts: Season One, a portion of the dialogue in the script in the scene in which Cora and Robert discuss Mary's dilemma and Cora suggests Anthony Strallan as a potential suitor, Cora indicates that Strallan is probably over the grief of losing his first wife because it's been two years since Maud's death. Robert asks why Strallan and Cora replies: "He's got no children. He needs an heir." (246).

↑The book The Chronicles of Downton Abbey confirms that Isidore was Jewish

↑Episode 3.02: Martha claims that Isidore "tied the money up tight" thinking that "the Crawley family had had quite enough"

↑In Episode 3.02, Martha states that she could not "touch the capital" and that her income is "generous".

↑The memorial says that Archie was "19" at death. 20 years before his death on 5th February 1917 is 1897, so he is born after that date - the earliest date being 18th February - but 19 years before 17th February 1917 is 1898, making that the latest date he could have been born.